Archive for the “Thinking Critically” Category

After reading the 3 articles about the salmon fishery crisis on the west coast, write a 2-3 paragraph COMMENT that addresses the following questions. Be sure to use complete sentences and spell check your response before submitting. (I highly recommend typing it in word, saving it, and then pasting it in!)

1. What do you think about what has happened over the past few years on the west coast? Explain.

2. Do you think it is possible to happen here in Alaska? Explain why or why not.

3. Do you think that this cycling in the commercial fishery is normal or something that will worsen over timefor other species and fisheries around the world? Explain why or why not.

4. Imagine if this crash and slow recovery were to happen in Cordova. Explain what you think the specific impacts would be on our community AND how would it impact you and your family if at all.

We have just had 2 classroom visitors to help compliment our fisheries unit in Marine Biology. Mike Webber graciously spent four days with us teaching us how to carve traditional halibut hooks to better appreciate old fishing tools and techniques and Virginia Lacy kindly took time to speak to us about her subsistence diet and the changes she has experienced over her lifetime.

Now I am looking for your voice. How have these visits impacted your learning and experiences? Were they valuable to you? Please take the time to reflect in a well-written and detailed COMMENT in which you specifically address the following:

Do you think it is valuable to learn about traditional practices, such as spiritual views, fishing tools & techniques, carving and subsistence lifestyles in a modern world? PLEASE EXPLAIN why or why not.

What did you like and/or dislike about the carving lessons?

Was the carving a valuable thing to incorporate into a Marine Biology class? Explain!

What did you think about hearing an elder’s perspective on subsistence living and changes over time?

Do you think it is a valuable thing to incorporate visiting speakers like this into a Marine Biology class? Explain!

Feel free to share any other thoughts you have about the lessons that may not have been addressed by the questions. Be sure to spell check before submitting!

I was reading this article, and I found it very interesting. This article talked about how intelligent octopi were, scientists say that they are the most intelligent invertebrate. Like the video we watched on cuttlefish, scientist’s put food in jars and let the octopus figure out how to get the food. They gave one of the octopus a jar with food and a twist off lid. It took the octopus 15 minutes to unscrew the lid the first try and, as they kept doing the experiment the average time was 2 minutes. They gave another Giant female Pacific octopus a pill bottle with food in it, and somehow it took the octopus 55 minutes to get the food the first try. I think this proves how insanely smart these animals are.

I found this very interesting. It is very hard to imagine how smart how cephalopods are. I mean when I was a little kid I could not open a push and twist bottle, these things can do it in just minutes without ever seeing anything like it before. I think octopus are very cool animals after reading this article.

I read this article; http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/octokeep.php about how to successfully maintain keeping an octopus in your aquarium at home. Sound sketchy? Octopus are said to be maybe the most intelligent being able to change color, size, speed, and shoot out ink. Octopuses are able to adapt to new situations, and get through small spaces. Here is a quote from the article: “With chromatophores, iridocytes, and a well-developed nervous system, octopuses can quickly camouflage themselves to distract or scare a predator. Another amazing characteristic is that octopuses change their color seemingly to reflect their mood: usually strong red indicates ‘anger’ and white denotes ‘fear.’ There are exceptions to this.”

They seem pretty sketchy to me, however, they pose little threat to man. Max Gene Nohl, a diving expert, summed it up by saying “In my opinion the chance of a diver being attacked by an octopus is as remote as the possibility of a hunter in the woods being attacked by a rabbit.” Octopuses may be hard to capture, because they’re very intelligent and are known for making great escapes. Also, they need to be alone in the tank because they’ll eat all of the other little critters you put inside, or at least try to. If you somehow successfully capture an octopus, put a lot of hiding places in the tank as well and “weld shut” the lid. I know if I was put in a tank, they’d better weld that lid shut.

Here is another quote:”Octopuses are very responsive to their environment. If you have had an octopus for a few weeks, something is seriously wrong if it is hiding all the time, especially at night, and still not eating. Prolonged whitish coloration, especially if the octopus is not eating, is not a good sign.” Octopuses are nocturnal, so if you don’t see it at night there’s probably something wrong. You should probably feed the Octopus at night, if you go to sleep early. If you wake early you should feed it in the morning. One last note, if others keep their octopus in a tank with no lid, I WOULD DEFINITELY NOT advise YOU to do this AT HOME.

I am mostly interested in this article, describing what cuttlefish are. I find it very cool that the flamboyant cuttlefish can change colors, and how the lines move on the cuttlefish body. Most people say that they are the most advanced vertebrate found. Even though they are closely related to slugs, they have much better motor skills, sensory structures and highly developed heads.

Another example of their advanced body is their eyes. They are very similar to many other vertebrates which could help study eye evolution and functions. Cuttlefish have layers of color producing cells that work together to get different patterns. Which look awesome on flamboyant cuttlefish. The top three color pigments seen are black/brown, red/orange, and orange/yellow. I think that these fish should be protected because they are very cute and colorful. Do you think that the cuttlefish could be considered a violent endangered species?

I read the article about the mysteries of the nautilus. one of the interesting things about them is that nobody knows where their eggs are laid in the world. Also, nobody has been able to raise one from egg to maturity. We don’t know their lifespan and how long it takes them to mature. Even their population count is a mystery to us. Nautilus reproduce for many years which nobody knows how long either. However, we do know that they only lay about 12 eggs each year. Nautilus eggs are among the biggest compared to other animals the same size as a nautilus.

I learned a lot of about the mysteries of a nautilus. I didn’t know there were so many things we haven’t discovered from nautiluses. Somebody should start a research team that is dedicated to finding the answer to all of these mysteries. They should capture nautiluses and put a tracking device on them. Perhaps this will help us find where they lay their eggs based on where they go or how long they stay on one place. Who knows what other mysteries they hold? More research on them will help.

Beware of the red octopus for when it bites you, be prepared for the start of a month long torment of pain and suffering. Red octopuses aren’t as big for they are about the size of a person’s hand and are unmistakably dangerous. Don’t under underestimate this little squishy sea creature, for its bite is as harmful as the octopus itself.

When this octopus bites its victim, it leaves a wound as small as 5mm; it’s practically hard to see it with the naked eye. This wound would start to bleed, then swell and give off an excruciating feeling of pain within minutes. This pain would usually last for about 20 minutes. It doesn’t just end there, for after a week signs of headaches and weakness will start to take effect. If this bite is untreated, necrosis will take effect for about a month.

It was said that hot water was an effective first aid treatment for bites and punctures of octopuses and other marine creatures. Hot water neutralizes the effects of the bite. There weren’t many discoveries of cures for these bites, so they’ve used this method as a number one priority ever since.

I find it shocking and amazed that such a small sea creature can put upon such a negative effect upon a person for such a long time. What other methods can be used to neutralize the harmful affects of octopus bites?

In this article, I read about the mysteries and wonders of a nautilus. To start off, there is only 1 surviving subclass left, the Nautiloidea, since the Ammonoidea group are already extinct. Surprisingly, there are only 7 species of nautilus left in the world! What’s more surprising is that we still do not know how long their life span is or how long it takes for them to mature. This is very interesting since the very little information that we have about them makes it even more intriguing.

I think that nautilus’ should be protected in a way if humans are collecting them for accessories, collection, or other means. Since nautilus are rare, grows slowly, and lays only a few eggs, about 12 each year, then shouldn’t we try to enforce some sort of regulations? If humans do use nautilus for some purpose, it should be mainly for research, medicine, or other useful purposes. We barely know anything about them and yet we could learn so much about them! What if they held solutions to problems we are trying to solve today? There are endless possibilities that we might discover of a nautilus.

I was mostly interested in this article. In Puget sound Dr. Roland C. Anderson is in charge of a research program for giant octopuses mostly on how many are down there and to conduct a survey every year to see if the population is healthy or if there could possibly be something wrong. To help them with their research program they enlisted some sport divers in the area to help look for the octopuses also sent out information to pretty much anyone who would like to help.

They agreed to chose a late winter date because apparently octopuses are seen more in the winter time because there is some evidence that the octopuses will look for deeper parts of the ocean to find cooler water in the summer time. Also the diving is better in the winter because there is less plankton in the water making it more clear. they were to report any octopuses findings and when they came up most of the octopuses they had seen had made dens under docks and places close to land.
Do you think that this is a good idea to be researching the population of octopuses?

i just recently read an article about the population of octopus in the puget sound, i think that its pretty cool how the scientist look at water depth, the distinguishing landmarks, types of seafloor. All of these factors are taken into considering before making the final analyzes. Initially they found that there was only one octopus seen per 3.125 dives which turns out to be a 0.16 octopuses per diver ratio and in which were mostly females guarding there eggs which isn’t very good considering there initial thoughts But on the other hand considering the fact that there is this many octopus’s being seen in highly used close dive sites it ends up showing that the octopus’s aren’t being harmed by all the diving activity. I really like how the scientist are so incredibly complex when developing there theory’s behind why the octopus might be harmed. And how there are people who are actually worried about the likely hood of the nearby wildlife. This shows me that people actually do care and the world around us, and kinda shows that we are concerned. I’m personally wondering how they specifically determined that the species wasn’t being threatened at all, they just conducted test about it recently, What about different part of the year?